Shiri was the first Korean film I ever saw, about a decade ago I guess it was. I re-watched it again recently and man, it has not held up quite so well, actually maybe it has.
I remembered thinking at the time it was kinda goofy what with the super-chemical-bomb-clown-nose-whatsit, but that's not even the most ridiculous part. But as silly as the eventual macguffin is, and as just plain dumb as some of the action scenes and characters are, it still kinda works. Its a thriller/melodrama, and like any good melodrama, once the silliness of the situation is bypassed the emotions they try to evoke can work. Its actually closer in tone to a good Hong Kong movie then it is most other Korean thrillers, and that's a good thing. The movie is nuts, and in some ways brazenly amateurish, but I'd still say its more good then bad.
Anyway, I loved seeing a youngish, thinnish Song Kang-Ho as the co-lead and the always awesome dude who plays Oldboy (like you know how to spell his name without checking). The performances are good all around, even though the central relationship between the chief agent and his girlfriend gets... complicated, its still compelling. If only more soap opera plots had deadly snipers in them.
Also, I really dug The Expendables, even though its a damned stupid movie. I found its lunkheadedness to be part of its charm. Also I found charming was its old school adherence to action, plot, characters, the thing was so authentically 80's that even the fashion sense of the protagonists is non-ironically ugly. Of course any movie from the Reagan era wouldn't have shook the camera up so dang much, but it wasn't nearly as bad as so many other 'action' movies to utilize the technique as of late.
So while its borderline distinguished mentally-challenged in so many ways that people more talented then me have already addressed, I ended up liking it a lot. Its got enthusiasm, its got guile, its got a surfeit of badass people doing badass things, who cares if its been done better elsewhere, here, its done well enough.
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